| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| Old age, life extension and the character of medical choice | | Author(s) | Sharon R Kaufman, Janet K Shim, Ann J Russ |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 61B, no 4, July 2006 |
| Pages | pp S175-S184 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Therapeutics ; Longevity ; Ageing process ; Rights [elderly] ; Qualitative Studies ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | This qualitative, ethnographic study explores the character and extent of medical choice for life-extending medical procedures on older adults. It examines the socio-medical features of treatment that shape health care provider understandings of the nature of choice, and it illustrates the effects of treatment patterns on patient perspectives of their options for life extension. Participant observation in out-patient clinics and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 38 health professionals and 132 patients aged 70+ who had undergone life-extending medical procedures. Providers and patients were asked open-ended questions about their understandings of medical choice for cardiac procedures, dialysis, and kidney transplant. Neither patients nor health professionals made choices about the start or continuation of life-extending interventions that were uninformed by the routine pathways of treatment, the pressure of the technological imperative, or the growing normalisation, ease and safety of treating ever older patients. A difference was found between cardiac, dialysis and transplant procedures regarding the locus of responsibility for maintaining and extending life. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070504223 A |
| Classmark | LL: BGA: BG: IKR: 3DP: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|